Worth the Fight?

     The NHL season just started this month, and while fans are following their teams with high hopes, they are also wondering whether a long standing part of the sport is disappearing. Fighting. Just yesterday, an article showed up on cbssports.com an incident in a game on Tuesday in which linesmen broke up a fight before it started. While in most settings, breaking up a fight before it starts would be tallied as a success, not everyone agrees that’s the case when it comes to hockey. If fighting is going to go away, it is not going to slip away without being noticed. Fans care about fighting. Some don’t like it. Some argue it’s as much a part of the game as the ice and the puck. Anyone who isn’t sure whether or not fans care about fighting should go check out hockeyfights.com, which provides updated fighting stats for both individual players and teams. The site even provides an opportunity for site visitors to vote for winners.

     Whether for better or worse, fighting is fading from the NHL. So far this year, fights per game is as low as it’s been in almost a decade, and steadily decreasing. Fans now have about a 30% chance of seeing a fight when they attend a game. Past and current players also agree that the use of “enforcers” to infuse physical intensity into the game is becoming less and less prominent in the league.

     Not everyone is sad about the idea of fighting disappearing in sports in general. Many see it as part of a larger problem. Sports mirrors society. Some argue it helps shape society in someways. By encouraging violence, are we setting up role models for ourselves and our kids that we will regret?

     I recently took up a part time job filming little league football games on Saturdays. I’ll admit I've been a little surprised with the way coaches and parents talk to their 7 year old kids. “I don’t care who you hit, just hit someone!” or “you need to take someone out.” As I've watched quietly from behind the camera, I’ve debated in my own mind whether this is just harmless pep talk, or whether it teaches kids that treating each other right had limit. Can we really encourage violence and fighting in sports but expect civil behavior off the field? Like I said, I’m still debating that question myself, and while I’ve always enjoyed watching the gloves come off at the rink, I now find myself asking the same question the NHL is wrestling with. Is it really worth the fight?